Integrated circuits such as microprocessors reside in many computers and electronic devices. Most integrated circuits have storage elements to store data.
A latch is one type of storage element. A typical latch stores a piece of data. At a specific time, one or more circuit elements get the piece of data from the latch for further processing.
Latches have many different structures. Some latches are less susceptible to soft-errors (loss of data) than other latches. Alpha particles emitted by packaging materials and cosmic rays from deep space may create the soft-errors in latches. A latch with a reduced soft-error rate may occupy larger circuit area and higher power consumption than a latch without a soft-error protection.
Therefore, to preserve the goal of smaller and low power integrated circuits, designing a latch with a reduced soft-error rate becomes difficult.